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In his book
Ultimate Guide to Optimizing Your Website, SEO and online
marketing expert Jon Rognerud shows you how to build a
high-performance website and get top ranking on all search
engines. In this edited excerpt, the author outlines three
different methods for getting artwork for your website.

If you want to include graphics such as photos, clip art or
animations in your website content, you need to create the
graphics yourself, buy them or use free graphics. Here's a look
at each of the different methods.

1. Creating website graphics yourself. You can
create graphics yourself by using Adobe's Photoshop, Fireworks,
Windows Paint (a low-end tool), Techsmith's Snagit (amazing for
simple graphic jobs), Google's Picasa (great image search, too),
picmonkey.com or other graphic-manipulation software. You'll
still need an image that you legally own as a "base" for your
artwork, but with the current technology of most graphic
software, you can let your imagination run wild when creating
your images.

For example, with Photoshop, there's an option to turn an average
photo into a drawing or a painting. You can also use Photoshop's
pen tool to outline parts of a photo to create a new image. Doing
this well takes practice, but it lets you create
professional-looking images without advanced drawing or art
skills. And, with a free service like QuotesCover.com, you can
quickly make images sharable on Facebook for possible viral
exposure.

If you have no original photos or other types of images to work
with, you can always use graphic software to create very fancy
text and borders. You can also use text to create .GIF images
that incorporate animated effects. Additionally, by using a .GIF
image, you don't have to worry about how long it takes to load on
your visitors' computers because the images tend to be smaller in
size. You can also access Flickr's Creative Commons License,
found at flickr.com/creativecommons to find free photos for your
site.

2. Buying website graphics. If you decide to buy
website graphics, you can purchase them individually, in bundles
or through subscription sites. If you buy them individually,
expect to pay from $1 to $50 per graphic. Bundles can cost as
little as $9.99 to hundreds of dollars. Subscription sites also
vary in price, ranging from $20 to $199. A few low-cost sites are
Dreamstime and Shutterstock. Photopin.com contains both free and
paid images. You can buy images for web or print. Most are only
$1 per image, and there's no subscription fee. Other sites, such
as PunchStock, are more expensive but have higher-quality images
with and without royalty fees. Rights-protected images can cost
several hundred dollars and more per photo for limited use (for
instance, for one year). Unless you have a business need for
exclusive photos, stock photos are a better option.

3. Using free website graphics. You can get
attractive website graphics for free, but there is a cost. This
cost isn't monetary--it's advertising space. In order to use free
website graphics, you have to provide a link to the site offering
them somewhere on your site. This has an advantage and a
disadvantage. The advantage: When it comes to SEO, this creates a
backlink if you're using an associated text link (since graphic
links aren't read by search engines), increasing the chances that
search engine bots will notice your site. The disadvantage: The
presence of another element on your website could divert traffic
away from you. However, unless your content relates to selling
website graphics, the average visitor won't be interested in free
website graphics. Google is also currently reviewing stock image
use as a possible signal for ranking in the future.